Hedge-Fund Canosa Said Poised to Surpass $1 Billion in Assets

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Canosa Capital LLP, the global macro
hedge-fund manager created by two former Rubicon Fund Management
LLP executives, is poised to triple assets under management to
$1 billion within its first year, said two people with knowledge
of the matter.

Inflows at the London-based firm that started in May are
coming from institutional and wealthy investors in Europe and
the U.S., said the people, who asked not to be identified
because the details are private.

Canosa, founded by Tim Attias, 48, and Santiago Alarco, 50,
with backing from Stockholm-based hedge fund manager Brummer &
Partners, began with $272 million in assets, with Brummer
supplying about $250 million of that. The fund climbed 9.4
percent from May 1 through Dec. 31, according a performance
report obtained by Bloomberg News.

Assets were $635 million as of Jan. 20, according to a
letter that Attias and Alarco sent to investors that day along
with the performance report. Canosa expects to receive another
$115 million by Feb. 3, with an additional $250 million or more
to arrive by March or April, said the two people with knowledge
of the fund. They didn’t provide details on specific investors.

In an e-mail, Alarco declined to comment on Canosa’s
performance and inflows.

Emerging markets “will continue to unwind the excesses
built up over the past decade,” Attias and Alarco wrote. The
MSCI Emerging Markets equity index has fallen 6.8 percent this
year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

As a global macro hedge fund, Canosa seeks to profit from
economic trends by trading stocks, bonds and currencies. Attias
and Alarco expect “further improvements” in developed
economies this year, they said in the letter, with “easier
credit conditions” and “improved household and corporate
confidence.

Canosa has a ‘‘bearish bias in U.S. fixed income,’’ and is
invested in developed-markets equities, particularly Germany’s
benchmark DAX index, they wrote. The measure has declined 2.5
percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
fund managers are ‘‘agnostic’’ on Japanese stocks and bonds and
maintain ‘‘a bearish view’’ on the yen, they wrote. The
Nikkei-225 Stock Average has dropped 8.5 percent this year.